Durham E-Theses The Worshipper's Half-Holiday: G.K. Chesterton and Parody SHALLCROSS, MICHAEL,RONALD How to cite: SHALLCROSS, MICHAEL,RONALD (2014) The Worshipper's Half-Holiday: G.K. Chesterton and Parody, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10662/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail:
[email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 The Worshipper’s Half-Holiday: G.K. Chesterton and Parody Michael Ronald Shallcross Abstract This thesis constitutes the first study of G.K. Chesterton’s status as a theorist and practitioner of parody. Employing a combination of original archival research, historical contextualisation, theoretical analysis, and textual close reading, I demonstrate that an extensive range of parodic strategies permeate Chesterton’s diverse output, from his detective fiction, to his nonsense verse, journalism, novels, and critical essays. I particularly focus upon elaborating the affinity of Chesterton’s work with the literary and cultural theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, in relation to the latter’s principle of dialogism, and his account of the parodic basis of the carnivalesque.